Using Cinnamon to Repel Ants

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I noticed ants crawling all over and inside two of my hives today, so I surrounded the hives with cinnamon.

A sprinkle of cinnamon around a hive to keep the ants away. (May 22, 2016.)

A sprinkle of cinnamon around a hive to keep the ants away. (May 22, 2016.)

I’ve read many times that cinnamon repels ants, though I’ve never seen it myself. I sprinkled some cinnamon around one of my hives a year or two ago, but then it rained, so I don’t know if it works. Whether it works or not, I’m not too concerned about the ants. I think it would take a biblical amount of ants to do significant damage to a hive full of bees. We’ll see.

July 2019 Postscript: Maybe the cinnamon repels ants. Maybe it doesn’t. I guess there’s no harm in trying it out of desperation, but these days I don’t bother. The ants will be around for a little and they usually disappear and never really cause much trouble.

2 thoughts on “Using Cinnamon to Repel Ants”

  1. I have used cinnamon to ward off ants in the past. I had ants camping out on my inner cover. Every time I checked the hive, there would be a bunch of ants and lots of eggs. I sprinkled cinnamon around the rim of the inner cover. Seemed to help a little. HOWEVER…the honey harvested from that hive had a distinct cinnamon flavour! A beekeeper told me to try using grass on the inner cover. Works like a charm. You just need to refresh the grass every once in awhile as it goes brown from the heat of the hive.

  2. hi , a friend told me of this too,to repel the ants but he uses cinnamon sticks around the base and its easier to use too and not have to reapply after the days of RDF

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